Mac OS X 10.4.x: Broken links in Burn Folders

We've received a handful of reports from readers who report incorrect alias links from Burn Folders in Mac OS X 10.4.x, usually when dragging media from mounted volumes other than the startup disk.

When blank media is inserted in a Mac OS X 10.4.x system, a Burn Folder is created, which generates aliases linked to data dragged into it. The files are then burned when the disk is ejected or the "Burn" button is pressed.

In problematic cases, the aliases contained within Burn Folders are incorrect, resultant in the wrong files or directories being copied to the optical media.

MacFixIt reader Sulka's case is typical:

"I was backing up my photo collection to DVDs and created a series of Burn Folders to the Desktop. I then went on to drag my photo folders from an external Firewire drive to the burn folders a few folders at a time and clicked the Burn button to check the amount of data I'd dragged still fit a DVD. Before burning the DVDs I browsed through some of the folders by clicking the link created into the Burn Folder. I then noticed the contents of one of the folders I opened weren't the contents they were supposed to be.

"I first suspected something funky with the external drive but short investigation later I discovered that the link in the burn folder actually linked to another folder - not the one with the same title as the link's name but some of the other linked folders I had just dragged. Closer investigation on all the folders revealed that every time I'd dragged more than one folder into the Burn Folder in one drag, the links had gotten screwed. Using Get Info showed the link really pointed to the wrong directory and was just named after the folder I thought it linked to.

"At this point I restarted my computer which had been running for maybe a week and rechecked the burn folders - the links were still broken. I deleted the burn folders and retried creating the folders but this time everything went fine so I guess there's a resource leak somewhere in Finder that caused the issue. However I'm concerned about this since I nearly created a set of backup DVDs that would have been nearly useless."

We've yet to reproduce this issue in house, though we've received corroborating reports from other readers.

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

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